Slaying Ghosts
by knittingknots
Summary: Post Manga.  One night, Kagome wakes up as InuYasha is touching her shoulder.  Why is he awake?  And what can she do to help him with what's troubling him?  Takes place 1573 in my timeline.


_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Slaying Ghosts**

Kagome woke up to feather touches, just barely registering in her consciousness. After a moment, she realized they came from her husband's fingers brushing against the top of her shoulder, sliding down her arm, onto the curve of her hip.

As she came to, she snuggled into his warmth, and slowly opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away. It was still dark outside, but InuYasha had evidently stirred up the fire not long before, and it cast a warm glow into the room. Their children were in the sleeping room, but she and InuYasha had once again chosen to sleep near the fire pit to talk and just share some time together after the little ones had gone to bed. She listened for a moment to be sure they were still asleep, but outside of the sound of the fire, and the sound of her husband breathing behind her, all was quiet. InuYasha leaned his head forward, touching the skin where her arm met her shoulder. She jumped a little as his hair, caressing the side of her neck, tickled slightly.

"Didn't mean to wake you," he murmured as his arm dropped around her, pulling her tightly against his chest. "I just needed to touch you."

"It's all right," she said, relaxing into his embrace.

He pulled her hair away from her neck and followed this with a series of kisses that trailed up to her neck, ending at her ear. Kagome rolled over, looking at him, the shadows shifting over his face as the flames danced in the fire pit. His eyes glittered a little in the warm light, and there was a dark seriousness around them and the set of his lips that was more than about his wanting her.

Lifting up a hand, she brushed his cheek with the back of her fingers, then let them slide into his hair. "Something wrong?" she asked.

He didn't say anything, but instead, took her hand, and brought it to his lips, kissing each finger, then rolled her under him.

She sighed, not unhappy with his want of her, but of why. "Bad dream?" she asked. This was not the first time she had woken up with him reaching for her desperately in the middle of the night. It had happened before, shortly after she had been attacked by bandits. But that was years ago, and this was something new.

"I..." he started, then swallowed. Instead of speaking, he let his mouth brush across hers, gently at first, but with a growing demand. His tongue danced over her lips, and joined in a dance with her own tongue; for a moment it was a dance of equals, but then, almost tasting his need, Kagome let him control the kiss, feeling his need to reconnect, to know in ways that only his inner workings understood, that she was here, she was his, and that he was not dreaming.

His hand palmed her breast and she parted her thighs, wrapping her legs around his back, hoping that being open and willing would ease his distress. He crushed her to him, his mouth trailing down to her neck, planting small kisses, and she let herself melt into the sensation, moaning softly at his attentions.

Suddenly, InuYasha paused and looked up at her. "I..." he began again, then swallowed. "It was so dark, the place I was at." Instead of continuing with lovemaking, he rested his head on her chest, listening to her breathing and the steady beat of her heart. "All I could hear was the wind and their damn sutra chanting."

"You dreamed about the temple again?" she asked.

He nodded, "I hate it, all the memories of that place. Stuck in a hole in the dark for two months. Why do I keep dreaming about it?"

Kagome ran her hand through his hair, playing with the tip of one fur-covered ear. It flicked against her palm as she drew soothing circles around its base. "I don't know," she said.

He lifted his head and looked her in the eyes. It hurt her, the look she saw there. "If it were a youkai, I could do something about it. But it's just a damn memory. How do I get it to stop?"

"Make new memories?" she said, brushing the bangs out of his face.

InuYasha sighed, and lay there for a moment, once again, resting his head on her chest. Suddenly, though, his ear twitched, as if he had come to some decision, and he crawled back up her body until they lay there, nose to nose. "Yeah, new memories are good. Long as they're memories with you in them."

Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck."Those are the ones I like best."

He ghosted his lips across hers. "Wanna make one now?" He let a hand drift between her legs.

Later, at peace in the afterglow, Kagome pondered how sometimes the worst wounds and the hardest to heal were the ones inside one's heart. Snuggling into her husband's hold, she knew that at least for the moment, they had slain the ghosts haunting him. Perhaps, eventually, they would slay them all.

_A/N This is a sequel to my story_ **_Finding Home_**


End file.
